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412 named as a mass or feast of thanksgiving for the first-fruits of the corn-harvest. That feast 'seems to have been observed with bread of new wheat, and therefore in some parts of England, and even in some near Oxford, the tenants are bound to bring in wheat of that year to their lord, on or before the first of August,' a day otherwise called the Gule of August. In Germany, a loaf of bread had to be given to the shepherd who kept one's cattle. The Church has assigned the day to St. Peter ad Vincula, which supplies no key to the choice of the day in Teutonic lands as a sort of feast of first-fruits; so we seem to be at liberty to regard the latter as having come down from pagan times, which enables us to understand the Irish account of the institution of the fairs and meetings held on that day. Thus if we go into the story of the fair of Carman, we are left in no doubt as to the character of the mythic beings whose power had been brought to an end at the time dedicated to that fair: they may be said to have represented the blighting chills and fogs that assert their baneful influence on the farmer's crops. To overcome these and other hurtful forces of the same kind, the prolonged presence of the Sun-god was essential, in order to bring the corn to maturity. Why Lug should have made the feast for Tailltiu does not at first sight appear; but let us see what can be made out of her. She is strangely described